The Civil War Has A Tremendous Death Toll

The medicines and medical techniques used during the Civil War were very primitive for their time. Extremely little was known about germs and the dangers of infections. In Recovery, it is stated that, “Treating wounds and illnesses with medication had become common—opiates, stimulants, sedatives, diuretics, purgatives, and more were widely available and used. The first pills had been made in the early 1800s. The stethoscope and the

John Burford, a Brigadier General, had received a bullet to the knee during the Second Battle of Manassas. Luckily Buford’s bullet wound wasn’t too serious. If the wound had been serious, it would have been treated with amputations and since there were no anesthetics back then, the person getting amputated on would feel all the pain. Surgeries during the Civil War were performed unsanitary. Surgeons would not wash their hands before operating and would wear blood splattered clothing. The instruments used for operating were never disinfected properly. Instead, they would dip their instruments in cold water, often bloody from the prior operation. Buford had died in December 1863 of

Dysentery and diarrhea were a result of poor hygiene, close quarters with other sick soldiers and food not properly stored or prepared. Almost thirty percent of the population with chronic diarrhea died, while the survival rate for acute diarrhea was much higher. (Schoeder-Lein 86). Typhoid fever could mimic the symptoms of classic diarrhea and it was at times, hard to diagnose. According to CDC.gov, a person can get typhoid fever if they eat food or drink beverages that have been handled by a person who is shedding Salmonella Typhi or if sewage contaminated with Salmonella Typhi bacteria gets into the water they use for drinking or washing food. Considering the sources of transmitting typhoid fever, it is understandable that this was one of the top killing diseases during the Civil War. Malaria and Yellow fever were both mosquito borne illnesses. Mosquitoes are a nuisance to us today, but during the Civil War they wreaked havoc on the population and caused widespread devastation across the entire land, but primarily in the South. Not just because of the warm climate but the lack of cold weather severe enough to kill the mosquitoes themselves. Yellow fever is a horrific illness that has multiple

During the Civil War, medicine was an important aspect for every soldier due to the fact that many soldiers had to fight and ended up with injuries also there were many types of illnesses. In this essay, I will focus on the advance of medicine during the Civil War. Also how the soldiers and civilians were treated as well as how sanitize their location was, are questions I will try to answer. Also, I will like to include some of most known causes of deaths during the Civil War and the types of diseases that soldiers would come in contact with. Include who was in charge of the hospitals during the war. I will also include information from letters and documents that the nurse and doctors wrote while the Civil War was going one and what kind of establishments were created and the kind of equipment they used in the hospital. Since the period of the Civil War was and is consider to be the start and growth of the medical industry it is important for me to find out why.

The Civil War began because of uncompromising differences between free and slave states over the power of government, in April 12, 1861. Most people died in the Civil War because of deadly diseases. The Battle of Gettysburg is considered the most important event in the Civil War. Soldiers fought from July first to July third 1863. Do soldiers really know how to treat an injury during a war? In the book The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara’s published in 1974, we are exposed to historical figures that could have treated their injuries and made them minor if they had modern medicine. With the medical training we have today the figures could have saved their limbs and known how to take better care of themselves in such uncomfortable situations.

They didn’t know about germs or anything like that. All they knew was that people were getting sick and dying, about 2/3 of people died from disease (civilwar.org). They didn’t even keep hospital reports until later in the war. Probably the most important nurse in this time was Clara Barton, she was also known as an angel. For instance she was the founder of the American Red Cross in 1881. She was the one who also wanted to clean up the horrible, terrible mess of the hospital (civilwar.org). Example they started to clean themselves and their equipment more often. Also they cleaned up the limb pile, and they started to keep records of their patients’ and what they did to them. Lastly they started to give their patients’ clean bandages and they gave them more water. Giving them more water just helped them stay more hydrated thus making them heal faster. There were three categories of wounded soldiers. There was mortally wounded, slightly wounded, and surgical case (civilwar.org). For instance if they got hurt on the battlefield they wound be given whiskey to help sooth the pain. Well at least until they got to a hospital. The Union army could get to the hospital by horseback or train, while the Confederate army only had horseback. For the Union army there was about 10,000 doctors, while for the Confederate army there was about 4,000. They treated about 10,000,000 people during the civil war (pacivilwar150.com). Their assistants were the ones who gave them their equipment, and they were the ones who had the chloroform. One of the military hospitals were called Fairfax Seminary and it housed over 1,700 sick and wounded soldiers right when it opened

When Walt Whitman wrote that he believed the "real war" would never get into the books, this is the side he was talking about (Belferman 1996). Yet, it is important that we remember and recall the medical side of the conflict too, as horrible and terrifying as it was (Adams 1952). Long before doctors and people knew anything about bacteria and what caused disease was the time of Civil War medicine. Doctors during the Civil War (always referred to as "surgeons") were incredibly unprepared. Most surgeons had as little as two years of medical school because very few pursued further education. At that time, Harvard Medical School did not even own a single stethoscope or microscope until well after the

According to mentalfloss.com article “ 5 Medical Innovations of the Civil War”, the war was the bloodiest wars of the country, with over a million casualties. Before the war, medical people would try to TLC a bullet infected limb, but as the injuries were more frequent, they discovered the best way to save the limb, and a life, was to just amputate the limb, going as far from the heart as possible, and not cutting at joints, this lowered the death rate to thirty percent compared to the usual seventy- five percent. Unfortunately, they didn’t discover and use anesthetic inhalers, later and more often. Although that was one of the discoveries, along with closing chest wounds, and facial reconstruction. The number of casualties from this war was overly devastating, although with many to treat, surgeons and medicine, came a long

In conclusion, being a doctor in the Civil War was really tough because you had to deal with all of these super complex injuries that you didn't really have enough knowledge and technology to treat it correctly so it won't get infected and you avoid amputations more

Men were dying left and right in the camps. The conditions and hygiene were poor especially during the beginning of the war. When the war began there were no plans of even treating the sick or the wounded. The first epidemics came of childhood diseases known as chicken pocks, mumps, whooping cough, and especially measles. Operations in the south meant a dangerous new environment. Surgeons had no antibiotics at the time so whiskey, coffee, and quinine were prescribed. During the Civil war these were only some of the few and little medicines that were available.

620,00 soldiers died in the Civil War, of those 2/3 of the deceased were struck down by disease. Today modern medicine has solved many problems. For example, we now understand the importance of sanitation, and how diseases spreads. However back in the 1800's things like the importance of sanitation and diseases spreading were not hugely known about. Which lead to a lot problems and disgusting surroundings for doctors and patients.

During the civil war, soldiers had very little resources. The food resources that they had were awful. Some of the time, soldiers would actually starve because they did not want to eat the disgusting food that they were given. Hospital conditions were terrible too. Everything was wet and the resources that the doctors had were scarce. The doctors had very little experience about infection and the spread of disease. Therefore, the hospitals were unsafe. Many soldiers didn’t want to even go to a hospital because if they had a leg or arm injury, the doctor would just amputate it instead of trying to fix the issue. The way that people treated the soldiers after the war was terrible. They called them names, would give them dirty looks, and sometimes

The inflation caused Southern money to be worthless, therefore no one would accept the money because there was nothing to back it. The soldiers fighting were starving, but the families that they left behind were also starving. People were desperate to find food, and as Document 51 points out “We had the hog, and had to make the most of it, even if we did ruin a needy and destitute family” (Hettle,160), individuals would do whatever they had to even if it involved stealing so that they could eat. All parties, individuals in both the Union and the Confederacy were having a hard time trying to find clean drinking water. Their best bet for clean water was to drink coffee, because the water was boiled, or alcohol because the water was distilled. Diseases were widespread, and there was very little medical care. Soldiers injured in the war just had to suffer through their injury. There was very little medical treatment for war injuries other than to amputate the injured appendage. Amputation did not fix all issues, and the surgical wounds could ultimately develop gangrene. The documentary, Death and The Civil War, discussed how soldiers would write home talking about their suffering and

These are some of the most common diseases and their cures during and after the Civil War. These cures that I’m going to list are what the doctors of that time prescribed. Unfortunately, some of these cures were just as fatal as the diseases. Firstly, we have Catarrh, which is when inflammation of the mucous membranes with increased flow of mucous. The cure to this remedy was smoking a mixture of herbs, flowers, leaves and berries. To avoid using tobacco or any habit-forming drugs. With dysentery, this was an intestinal disease with inflammation of the bowels, abdominal pain and bloody diarrhea. The cure that was mentioned for this was blackberry tea. Pneumonia as we may know is an inflammatory condition of the lung, in which the lungs fill

Often times, when one thinks of the civil war and the men who fought and died, he often will only consider the deaths in terms of battle. However many do not consider that a large number of these deaths were linked to germs. In the Civil War, many soldiers died from diseases and lack of cleanliness because they did not know about hygiene or how to stay clean. Most soldiers touched many germ infested things without even knowing that those surfaces contained thousands of germs that could eventually cause disease. Although the Civil war is ancient history, germs, unfortunately are not. In today’s society, people have access to lifesaving vaccinations. In fact, vaccinations are the best way to prevent the spread of pathogens, because they help fight off diseases.